The Government of India is reported to be providing budgetary support to the CSIR Labs to the extent of around Rs.17100 million per year.

While a firm base has been created through CSIR labs for conducting scientific and technological research in India, there is lingering doubt as to whether the overall performance of CSIR labs have met the expectations of Jawaharlal Nehru.

Sometime back, the scientists in the CSIR labs even  indulged in agitation demanding better wage structure etc. which made many wonder as to whether there is appropriate and adequate research culture in CSIR at all. This is not to belittle the contribution and achievements of CSIR labs which has gone from strength to strength in terms of manpower and facilities over the years but to point out that the CSIR labs  have not been able to provide commensurate benefits in tune with the investments made and money spent in maintaining them.  Unfortunately, “the consumer confidence” in CSIR labs is far from satisfactory.

While it is certainly not necessary that research activities  should be evaluated in  terms of rate of returns  for the investment made, results have to be shown over a period of time that the investment in the research have been well spent and rewarding benefits have been achieved.

It is reported that CSIR Labs have more than 3000 patents in force, of which around  58% are foreign registered patents  and around 42% are patents registered in India. Of course, of this, a single patent can be counted more than once, depending on the number of countries where it is granted.

One cannot be found fault with , if it would be said that patent registrations need not be the be all and end all of research activity and the utility of such research should be evaluated by the utility value of the patents in actual practice. While the CSIR labs do generate revenue from its patents, it is reported that in
2004-2005, CSIR filed 50 patents and generated Rs.40 million in royalties and licencing, while in the same period , it spent Rs.100 million in  filing for the new patents and maintaining the existing ones !

Obviously, the functioning of  CSIR labs have to be  evaluated on the basis of its earnings and money spent ,  while giving some credits for the quality research work even if it would not have resulted in any earnings.  Unfortunately, the government and the management of CSIR labs are yet to carry out any detailed investigative study from the point of view of the financial performance, to bring out a white paper on the justification for more than Rs.17000 million that is being spent by Government of India every year in maintaining the CSIR labs.

Now, the question is as to whether the research activities in India should continue to be pursued by government owned organisations  like CSIR labs. May be not.  The government is to govern and not to carry out technological and scientific research under its fold.

Jawaharlal Nehru was certainly justified in founding and promoting CSIR labs immediately after independence that helped  in  laying the foundation for research activities in India.   It is now more than six decades after we achieved independence and India has moved a long way in scientific and technological competence.  The question is how long should the Government of India fund the research activities on such a massive scale without commensurate results.

While the government of India has now accepted the concept of privatization of public sector organizations and even such massive and highly productive company like Indian Petrochemical Corporations Ltd. has been privatized, what could be the objections for privatizing the CSIR labs?.

The privatization of the CSIR labs would wipe  away the sort of lethargy and government culture that have crept into  these institutions over the last several decades and would help in meeting  the urgent requirement of India to achieve breakthroughs in technological research , that would benefit India substantially.

While CSIR labs have certainly contributed to scientific advancement, what we need is much more qualitative and meaningful research achievements. Possibly, privatization of CSIR labs will make this possible.

Companies that seek to create new capacities or  expand the  existing facilities for production of chemicals have to necessarily forecast the price behaviour of the product atleast for the next 5 to 6 years. Such price forecasting have become absolutely necessary to assess the prospects for the chemical products and project the profitability of operation in the coming years.

It is, therefore, necessary that the chemical industry managers have to keep themselves continuously posted with the information about the latest development and changes on the various aspects of the functions of  chemical industry in the global as well as regional context  that could influence the price trends. This updating of data and information have to be carried out  on regular, continuous and day today basis.

The price forecasting will be meaningful, only if it would be  made on the basis of the global as well as regional demand supply scenario. The regional factors can not be ignored in the price forecasting.

The price forecasting particularly has become a difficult and complicated exercise, in view of number of varying and sometimes conflicting contributing factors, that have impact on the price behaviour.

There are several  factors that  influence the price forecasting such as the following:

Raw material price:

The price of raw material is the most important component in determining the cost of production and consequent price fixation for the finished product. Therefpre.the price behaviour of the raw material have to be studied with great care during the price forecast exercise.

Cost of fuel and power

Just like raw material, fuel and power costs also significantly contribute to the cost of production and product pricing.

With natural gas and petroleum fuel increasingly  being used for energy purposes and as feed stock across the world, forecasting the price of natural gas and fuel is extremely important issue in price forecasting for the chemical products. The recent experience have shown that the price of crude oil and natural gas are made to fluctuate considerably from time to time due to political issues, self centered policies of the regions where the fuel and natural gas are significantly produced and market manipulation and stock market behaviour.

Anticipating the price behaviour of fuel and natural gas has almost become a matter of speculation these days!

Likely demand supply scenario in the market

Due to technology development, environmental issues, product obsolescence etc. substitutes and more eco friendly products are being continuously developed. The need for development of such substitute products also arise due to changing consumer expectation and taste and logistic compulsions.

Therefore, the demand supply scenario for the products are often subjected to changes and consequently causing price variation in the market from time to time. In such conditions, it is inevitable that the price of the product that are in scarce supply would go up considerably, until adequate capacity would be built up for the product in one part of the world or the other.

The performance of the consuming and  end user sector are significantly influenced by the changing demand supply scenario and which consequently lead to price variations.

Freight factors for transportation

Freight cost are likely to go up in tune with the fuel prices. Therefore, the consumers who are located close to the producing units will have advantages in the delivered price of the products.Consumers, located at distance from the producing units would have to pay higher delivered price.

Difficult task

The issues such as the above affect the price trend in the market, which clearly highlight the difficulties involved in the price forecasting and the uncertainty about it.

The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers of Government of India is in the process of finalising a policy to promote investments in the production of urea, a mass-use fertiliser.

For fresh investments in urea, the government needs to facilitate long term availability of natural gas, the feedstock that accounts for four-fifths of urea production cost--at competitive rates. If India would import natural gas at $6 to 7 per mmBtu for fertiliser plants, it is viable to set up fresh capacity.

India is planning an aggressive foray into the global market for natural gas, as it reckons that the output from Reliance Industries’ KG-D6 block would hardly meet the growing demand from key sectors like fertilisers.

According to official estimates, even RIL gas will cost around $6 per million metric British thermal unit (mmBtu), including transportation cost by the time it reaches the customer. Production from RIL’s K-G D6 block is now at 60 million metric standard cubic metres a day (mmscmd) and the government has already allocated it to existing gas consumers, including fertiliser, power and steel producers.

Potential gas suppliers to India include producers in major liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporting countries such as Indonesia, Australia, Qatar, Oman, UAE and Algeria.

State-owned GAIL has advised the government that now is the opportune time to strike global gas contracts, which could fetch gas at a competitive price of around $6 to 7 per unit at any fertiliser production facility in India.

Since natural gas demand in the USA is depressed due to the economic slowdown, global LNG prices have come down. The availability scenario is good and it is a buyer’s market now. Therefore, India should be able to get long-term supply of gas at competitive prices

Presently, over ten ciprofloxacin active ingredient manufacturers are operating in China, mainly located in Zhejiang province. 

This article discusses the following details :

• China’s major ciprofloxacin active ingredient producers
• Exports
• Global suppliers
• Environmental issues
• Prospects

Bitumen is composed, primarily of highly condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Crude bitumen is a sticky, tar-like form of petroleum, which is so thick and heavy that it must be heated or diluted before it will flow.

Product characteristics

Alternate name                         Asphalt
CAS number                             8052-42-4
Appearance                              Black solid material at 25 deg C
Density                                    1.03 kg per lit
Melting point / softening point  55 deg C

This article discusses the following details :

• Hazardous decomposition products
• Product specification
• Product application
• Demand drivers
• Global growth rate in demand
• Historical global demand trend
• Global use pattern
• Sectorwise usage pattern
• Global production
• Major international producers
• Environmental issues
• Advances in usage technology
• Process details
• Indian scenario
• Styrelf range of bitumen products
• Modified bitumen product from Shell Bitumen India
• Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.
• CRMB  ( Crumb Rubber modified bitumen )
• Emulsion
• PMB ( Polymer modified bitumen )
• Indian bitumen demand
• Indian bitumen standards
• Export of petroleum bitumen from India
• Import of petroleum bitumen in India

2-Propyl heptanol is high molecular weight alcohol and a mixture of isomeric decyl alcohols.

2-Propyl heptanol is a clear, high-boiling liquid with a mild odour.

It is used for plasticizer manufacturing

Product characteristics

CAS name          2-Propyl-1-heptanol 
CAS number          10042-59-8 
Formula                 C10H22O 

Synonyms          Isodecanol, Isodecyl alcohol, Oxo Alcohol, C4 Chemicals

Purity                    >=99,5  %
Boiling point          205 to 225  deg.C

Solubility: 2-Propyl heptanol is miscible with most common organic solvents, but is practically insoluble in water.

This article discusses the following details :

• Applications
• Demand driver
• Project of Evonik Industries
• Project of Perstorp
• Project of BASF
• BASF’s project in China
• Market growth
• Process technology of Evonik
• Technology developed by Davy Process Technology
• Indian scenario